European Humanities

Four different core courses explore European history, film, art, literature, philosophy, or religious studies in the iconic settings that define the Western tradition.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Travel with your class and DIS faculty on course-integrated study tours that animate the themes of your chosen core course and offer you a comparative perspective on your major

Gain a deeper understanding of the material discussed in class on field studies such as gallery visits, artist talks, poetry nights, and meetings with European contemporary authors and film directors

Tailor your own research paper towards your passions and interests in your field of study

PROGRAM STUDENT PROFILE

This program is right for you if you study any discipline within humanities, with particular interest in art, film, history, literature, philosophy, or religious studies, and are interested in the European Tradition within your major.

CORE COURSE OVERVIEW

>> A Sense of Place in European LiteratureWe will focus on the interrelation between place and text and discover new comparative perspectives on European literature through in-depth analysis of some of the continent’s most radical authors. You will meet and work with contemporary Danish and Russian authors, and improve your own writing.

Core Course Week: A three-day study tour in Western Denmark alongside a two-day seminar in Copenhagen.

Note: This core course is attached to a mandatory study tour to St. Petersburg, Russia. When signing up for this course, DIS will assist you with the visa application for Russia before coming to Denmark. Please visit the study tour page for more information.

>> Competing Narratives: Modern European HistoryStudy how selective ways of remembering Europe’s past have shaped collective and individual identities. This course examines the complex web of competing historical narratives, studying concepts and discourses in the contemporary field of history and memory studies.

>> Modern Frames: European Art and CinemaThis course examines artistic expression in European film and visual arts. What role do independent film and art movements play in 20th- and 21st-century Europe? How are aesthetics influenced by the changing political landscape? We will do a case study of subversive art in post-communist Prague and meet with Danish directors to discuss film in the late-capitalist era.

Core Course Week: A three-day study tour in Western Denmark alongside a two-day seminar in Copenhagen.

>> Religious Mythos and Philosophical LogosWe explore the function of myth and the emergence of the rational philosophical mind. We begin with the great poets, philosophers, and prophets of Ancient Greece, including Homer, Sophocles, and Plato and conclude with works from the modern Continental thinkers: Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.

European Humanities Photo Gallery

DIS Student Blogger

First day on study tour, we walked from east to west Berlin and saw the former headquarters of Hitler Youth, the East Berlin TV tower, statues of Stalin, the partially reconstructed palace on Museum Island, and a small but powerful monument outside the university library....

It signifies the 1933 Opernplatz book burnings that took place on that spot. Standing directly on top of this empty ‘library’ I really got my first sense of the complicated history that surrounded us. It was fascinating to finally put the events and places I’d read so much about into some sort of context.

Taylor RondesvedtWellesley College, DIS Student Blogger

Elective Courses Feature

Dive in with the experts at the Søren Kierkegaard Research Center, University of Copenhagen, focusing on Denmark’s most radical author:

Why not join Denmark’s most talented young musicians, performance majors receive focused instruction through this elective course with Danish music professors at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, the most prestigious conservatory in Denmark:

Delve into the haunting mythological sagas of the Viking Age in the three-credit elective course Nordic Mythology. You will explore beyond the texts you analyze in class on field studies to see historical relics at local history museums, the vellum originals of sagas at the Arnamagnean Institute, as well as a day trip to sail the fjords in a reconstructed viking ship.

Housing Feature: Arts & Culture House

Request to live in the Arts & Culture Learning & Living Community with your fellow students who have an interest in exploring a broad array of cultural offerings within theater, music, dance, film, painting, and writing.